COSCO minimised damage from last week's cyber attack in the Americas, adding that most US, Canada, and South America cargo handling was unaffected because company IT men had isolated the impact from global operations, reported IHS Media.

"There is reason to think that Cosco was aware of what happened to Maersk before and they took steps to minimise risk. They didn't have everything on one server," said Susan Kohn Ross, a Los Angeles lawyer who specialises in cyber security.

Cosco notified its customers on Monday that the July 24 cyber attack had caused a failure in its networks in the US, Canada, Panama, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Chile and Uruguay was over.

"All of the areas have been totally recovered," Cosco said. The notice included specific instructions for submitting cargo booking requests, booking confirmations and booking amendments, as well as shipping procedures such as bill of lading instructions, cargo tracking, arrival notices and the pick up of empty containers. Most of the procedures had returned to normal, with few changes.